As I have written before, when I was a budding cook, given free reign of the kitchen after the Sunday lunch dishes were done, I would turn to mum’s Marguerite Patten recipe cards. The cards, published in the late 1960’s, were in a teal plastic box with an embossed silver knife and fork on the front and were stored on top of the fridge freezer. The clear plastic lid allowed you to read the divider cards which had headings like Supper Dishes, Casseroles, Salads and Vegetables, Meal Starters and Egg & Cheese Dishes. However, as a child with a sweet tooth and an interest in producing something for afternoon tea the sections I turned to most often were Pastry, Family Cakes, Tea Cakes, Bread & Scones, Gateaux and Traditional and Celebration.

In this last section was a recipe for Pavlova, subtitled Meringue Gateau. In the corner of the card the New Zealand flag showed the origin of this unfamiliar dessert (although Australians will insist it was invented there). The photograph on the front showed a meringue shell filled with anaemic and glistening sliced, tinned peaches and, although the serving suggestion also mentioned passion fruit pulp, there was only a tantalising half passion fruit in a basket in the background to give a hint of what this exotic fruit – at that point, unseen in the wilds of north London – looked like.